William Merritt Steger
Appointed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1970 and confirmed by voice vote, William Merritt Steger was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. He earned a law degree from Southern Methodist University School of Law (now Dedman School of Law) in 1950. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1920–2006
- Appointed by
- Richard M. Nixon, 1970
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Southern Methodist Law (now Dedman School of Law) 1950
- Succeeded by
- Richard A. Schell
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Eastern District of Texas | Nixon (R) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Steger was assigned 4,710 district-court cases (1978–2006). Median time from filing to termination: 168 days across 4,709 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
On appeal
Of 14 of Steger’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 9 were affirmed, 1 reversed or vacated, and 4 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.
In our data, Steger authored 61 published opinions for the court (1971–2005). Most cited: Brennan v. Gibson's Products, Inc. of Plano (33 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Brennan v. Gibson's Products, Inc. of Plano | 407 F. Supp. 154 | 33 |
| 1977 | Hudson Waterways Corp. v. Coastal Marine Service, Inc. | 436 F. Supp. 597 | 32 |
| 1974 | Hite v. Maritime Overseas Corporation | 380 F. Supp. 222 | 27 |
| 1998 | TV-3, Inc. v. Royal Insurance Co. of America | 28 F. Supp. 2d 407 | 19 |
| 2005 | Cartwright v. Pfizer, Inc. | 369 F. Supp. 2d 876 | 17 |
| 1994 | Hawkins v. Upjohn Co. | 890 F. Supp. 601 | 17 |
| 1995 | Ralph M. Parsons Co. v. South Coast Supply Co. (In Re a & M Operating Co.) | 182 B.R. 997 | 14 |
| 1986 | Moorhead v. Mitsubishi Aircraft International, Inc. | 639 F. Supp. 385 | 14 |
| 1985 | Sierra Club v. Block | 614 F. Supp. 134 | 14 |
| 2004 | Harvill v. Westward Communications, LLC | 311 F. Supp. 2d 573 | 13 |
| 1999 | Padilla v. Carrier Air Conditioning | 67 F. Supp. 2d 650 | 13 |
| 1994 | Hawkins v. Upjohn Co. | 890 F. Supp. 609 | 13 |
| 1985 | Young v. Amoco Production Co. | 610 F. Supp. 1479 | 13 |
| 1975 | Fawvor v. Texaco, Inc. | 387 F. Supp. 626 | 13 |
| 1977 | Brennan v. Whatley | 432 F. Supp. 465 | 10 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 61 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed William Merritt Steger?
- President Richard M. Nixon appointed William Merritt Steger to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in 1970.
- Was William Merritt Steger appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- William Merritt Steger was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was William Merritt Steger's confirmation vote?
- William Merritt Steger was confirmed by voice vote on November 25, 1970. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was William Merritt Steger on?
- William Merritt Steger was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: Billy Hathorn (CC BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
35 years on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).